Northumberland Big 10

So that’s it my last race of the year over with and I’m fairly happy with how it went.

This is the first Run Nation Event I’ve taken part in and it seemed to go pretty well, Kirkley Hall is a great place to start a run as there’s ample parking and other than a few issue with the lack of toilets it’s a pretty good venue.

I knew after last week’s race I was in pretty good shape, everyone told me this was going to be a far tougher route though so I was determined to not follow last week’s fast start with another here. Setting off down the hall drive then out onto the main road the terrain for the first couple of miles held my pace in check more than anything else, it’s pretty much a steady climb all the way to Ogle where things level out a little, running along knowing that this meant that the last mile or so coming back in would all be down would keep me going later. Things levelled out along the back roads towards to Whalton, I’ll point out here that the road this race is held on were open but pretty much traffic free for the whole race, other than the multiple groups of cyclists out enjoying the a break in the weather I encountered no issues with cars which makes a nice change! Heading through 5k at just under 27 minutes I felt like I was in control, then at 3.5 miles we hit a real hill, over all the climb wasn’t that bad but there were a few short steep lengths that really stung my legs, and was we past the 4 mile marker there was a nagging ache growing in my hip, I hoped that I could run it off as we eased back down the hill but at 9:26 mile 4 was the slowest of the race.

Hitting halfway at 44:20 gave me a boost, I was on course to run a similar time to last week, given how much tougher the first 5 miles had been and how fresh I felt I decided I’d try and hold the steady pace and push the last 2 or 3 miles which I knew were the easiest of the race. In my head this all felt like a great idea, the course had other plans, the next 2.5 miles were all up hill, nothing hard or steep just one long climb through the countryside, the good news is that the sun was poking through the clouds, the bad news was the my hip was getting worse. When I reached the water station at mile 7 I had to stop and try and stretch things out, I wasted maybe a minute here but with just a parkrun to go I knew that I’d barring a disaster I’d get round and knowing the next few miles should be easier I decided I’d have a bit of a push. My hips seemed to ease off as I lengthened my stride and relaxed into the pace. The last 3 miles were my fastest of the race running them in just over 25 minutes, that’s not far off my current 5k pace and given it’s at the end of a 10 mile run I’m ecstatic, clocked 43:39 for the second 5 miles so a nice negative split for the first time ever over this distance, the course helped with that and so did running two 10 milers in successive weekends, whatever the reason it was a great way to bring the years racing to an end. Just got to hope that I haven’t done any long term damage to my hip.

Turns out it was a great day for the club, the last GP race of the season meant a decent turnout and some good times, good enough in fact to win the team prize on the day (I was a long way from being a counter), so a solid run with a nice club win is a great way to sign off for 2016, fingers crossed I’ll stay strong over the winter and next year I can really make some progress!!

Brampton to Carlisle Road Race

A 10 mile race on the back of 3 runs in 4 weeks, didn’t feel like the most sensible plan when I got on the club bus for the 80 mile trip to the start line, the good news was that the race didn’t start till 11:30 so we didn’t leave till 8:30, the bad news was that it was FREEZING!!

An uneventful trip over was spend drinking coffee, eating porridge and wondering how many layers I was going to need to be comfortable, I settled on a long sleeved base layer and T-Shirt under my club vest and some tights under my shorts, annoyingly I’d forgotten my gloves not that much of an issue once the run starts but pretty uncomfortable when waiting around.

Anyway, last weekend I ran Park Run, pretty much just to get some Grand Prix points but also to see how strong I felt, I’d intended on pottering round at my HM pace just to get a feel for things for this weekend, but as is usual for me in shorter stuff I just want to get it over with and despite running the first mile to plan I got bored, pushed on and ran a course PR and seasons best 5k of 25:11, I was pretty pleased and knew if I’d pushed on the first mile I might have even managed a PB and if I’d been paying attention and actually sprinted the finish I might have dipped under 25 minutes for the first time in 18 months. That wasn’t the point though, I was round and felt good, those 3 miles took me to a total of 15 miles in the last 4 weeks, I know 3 miles isn’t exactly a marker for a 10 mile race and that an average of 4 miles a week training is terrible but strangely I’ve never felt better.

So as I stood shivering on the start line I knew I was going to be OK, I’d planned to stick around 9 minute miles and ease myself round in around 1:30, that seemed like a realistic target so when the gun went and I plodded off down the hill I was confident that I’d get round OK and if nothing else it would be a good practice for the 10 mile race I’ve got next weekend.

I knew the first 2 miles were a gradual downhill so was expecting to be a little quicker than planned, so when the first mile passed at 8:25 I was comfortable, when the second mile split came up at 8:15 I knew I was going to have to hold myself back, I thought I’d done that in mile 3 especially as half of it is uphill but when I passed the 5k mark at just over 26 minutes I knew I was going too hard and I needed to pull things back or the last few miles were going to be horrific.

Anyway consciously eased back and ran the next 5 miles at between 8:40 and 8:50, I clocked a seasons best 10k time in there at 53:45 which was a nice bonus. I’m not writing much about the course or the route itself here as truth be told it’s far from inspiring, that’s not to say it’s not a great course, it really is, there just aren’t any stand out features. That is until the last 2 miles, what is a flat course suddenly becomes “rolling” this combined with my over eagerness at the start made the end of the race quite s struggle, looking at the splits I slowed down to over 9 minute miles which was my target pace to begin with so not too disappointing but they certainly felt slower than that on course, one thing I can definitely say about crossfit is that my ability to push when I’m tired has seen huge gains, mentally I’m in great shape at the minute and a fari proportion of that is down to the changes I’ve made since starting out in my box!

Anyway, I finished in 1:27:58 according to my garmin, it’s not a chip timed race so my official time is 1:28:30 from the gun, annoyingly my Garmin time is a 5 second PB that I’m not going to get as it’s unofficial, still I’m over the moon with my time and how the race went, still can’t believe that in a week I’ve ran my fastest 5k, 10k and 10m in nearly 2 years and all on the back of pretty much no running training!

Oh and I LOVE the coaster we got for finishing!!!

Gibside Fruit Bowl Trail Race

Sunday was the 20^th anniversary of the Gibside Fruit Bowl Trail Race and the next instalment of my running clubs Gran Prix, so with an early alarm call and 40 mile drive under my belt I arrived at Gibside not exactly raring to go, but that soon changed when I pottered round to the start area, I’ve got to admit I it’s tough to find better surroundings that this for a race!

After 2 days of rain I wasn’t particularly looking forward to sliding round the trails and when I bumped into a couple of other harriers for a chat just before the start and they mentioned how hilly the route was I was starting to wonder whether this was a good idea on the back of so little training. The starter didn’t exactly improve things when he announced that as it was the anniversary addition of the race they were keeping the route as close to the original one as possible which meant that it was going to be longer than advertised by best part of a mile, at least the sun was shining though!

The first couple of miles weren’t too bad, they were definitely undulating and there was one fairly steep grassy bank that all the mud made it quite tough to run up with but I was feeling pretty good, sticking to my plan of just taking it easy and seeing what I had left in the tank for the last mile. As we looped back past the hall and down the steep bank toward the car park I heard a whisper the first real hill was coming up, they weren’t kidding, as we turned the corner it was all uphill for the next ¾’s of a mile, looking at my gps we only gained 240 foot but that’s a constant gradient of about 6% on a rough trail and even though we were only a third of the way through the race I passed quite a few people who were already walking from about halfway up, not a good sign.

The good news is what goes up must come down so a nice half mile downhill let the legs recover a little before it was back up again only this time they’d stretched the same elevation gain over a mile and where parts of it were fairly flat the steep sections were real leg biters, my hips were screaming as we passed the 4 mile marker at the top of the climb, as we passed the marshal pointed out that this was the highest point of the day, what he failed to mentions is that the rest of the climbs we had coming were significantly steeper!!

The run out from the top was a on stunning trail, I love tracks like this, sweeping gravel roads leading into tight muddy tracks thought the forest, my legs felt great and the nagging pain in my hips was subsiding as we all picked up our pace on the downhill, as always the downside to going down a valley is that you’ve got to come back out of it at some point, and the way out turned out be a narrow muddy 10% climb for half a mile, my legs were screaming and but I was determined to keep pushing, if I’m honest I probably could have walked it just as fast and conserved some energy but I struggled my way up and we trudged over the top the runner next to me I said now was the time to push on as we had a good mile downhill coming, so that’s what I did, I clocked my fastest mile of the race at this point, it’s wasn’t all downhill but it was certainly a fast track down to and then along the side of the river. And then it came, the kick in the teeth we’d been warned about a the start, the 20% muddy climb back towards the start, the track was so narrow and with 200 runners already through churning it up I had to cave in a walk the majority of it, not that I could have done much else in truth as the track was so narrow it would have been tough to pass anyone and pretty much everyone else was walking so I accepted defeat and promised myself I’d push as hard as I could when we eventually crested the hill.

Over the top and half a mile to go so I gave it everything I had which turned out not to be much, but I crossed the line with a smile knowing that I’d worked hard, my overall pace for the race was slower than most of my easy training runs but that’s what trail running is about, racing the course and not the watch!

I really enjoyed the race and I’ll be back next year Grand Prix event or not, it’s a nice touch that as part of your entry you get a family day pass for the Hall and Gardens so next year I’ll be bringing the family with me and we can have an afternoon exploring after the race!

NEHL XC 1 – Wrekenton

The day finally arrived, my first race since starting my “no hard runs” training plan, having banked a few good weeks training and everything feeling good I picked up a couple of my club mates and we made the 40 mile trip south to Wrekenton for the first fixture of this seasons NEHL Cross Country.

There was a nervous excitement building all the way down, it was Jordans first XC since school and he’s been running really strong the last few months so there was quite a bit of nervous excitement building as we arrived at the venue and collected our numbers. We’d both be starting in the slow pack although he’d be a lot further up it than I would be. I really like this set up, having Slow/Medium/Fast packs really makes the quicker runners work hard and gives the opportunity for faster slow runners to still be in the mix come the finish, the only problem is that in the first race of the season the packs are a bit more mixed as everyone settles into their level.

The first thing that really surprised me was how dry the ground was, almost everyone was wearing road shoes, this is pretty much unheard of as an XC here, most of the time it’s so muddy that by the time the men’s race starts even fell shoes struggle.

I pulled on my vest and did a quick warm up then and wiggled myself into the starting pack at about 2 thirds of the way up as I didn’t want to get caught in the stampede of fast runners at the front but wasn’t too keen on being stuck behind too many people through some of the narrow sections of the course.

As always the men’s race was 3 laps, I’d decided I push fairly hard for the first half of the first lap in the hope of finding a clear space to run in, in retrospect this was probably a mistake, one I wouldn’t have made had I take then time to have a proper look at the route before the start. The first section of the race is pretty much all up hill and the steepest part of the course, pushing hard here meant that I suffered a bit later. I settled in behind a small group that felt as if they were pacing themselves nicely around where I wanted to be, about three quarters of the way around the first lap we were passed by the medium and fast packs and WOW were some of them moving at a pace, I cheered a couple my club mates as they passed then settled back into my group for the rest of the lap.

The second half of the lap was definitely easier than the first, although the total climbing was about the same the hills weren’t as steep so it was easier to find a rhythm. Then as we reached the start of the second lap the group began to slow so I eased around them and made my way back up the first climb pretty much on my own, I could see a couple of runners cresting the hill as a turned the corner half way and set my sights on catching them before the end of the lap, having someone to chase definitely helped me hold on, my pace was slower then the first lap but significantly more measured, I was consciously holding back a little so I had enough in the tank to push hard on the final lap.

I eventually caught the last of the group I’d been chasing as we hit the start line and tucked in behind them to catch my breath, it was unseasonably hot and there being no drinks stations was playing on my mind as my throat was starting to dry out, I’ve a feeling this was less to do with the lack of a drinks station and more about the drinking I’d done at a wedding the previous day, but at the time I was just thirsty and distraction mean my pacer had gained a little gap on me which I was struggling to close. Having helped out at events before I make a point of thanking each marshal as I pass them on the final lap, it’s a long day in what is usually awful weather and without them none of us could be competing. This took my mind off my thirst and looking back at my stats I ran the second half of the last lap at my fastest pace of the race, I’d like to say this had been the plan all along but I’d be lying, I managed to catch and pass my pacer on the way up the final climb and as I hit the last 400m stretch I could see 3 runners up in front and set my sights on chasing them down as hard as I could, I was running hard as I made the turn for the final 200m straight and could hear at least one runner gaining on me, I pushed again but the tank was empty and with 20m to go he sneaked past me.

So that was it, the first XC of the season done, the men’s team did amazingly well, after gaining promotion last year we managed to finish 3^rd in our new division and Jordan had finished as a counter for the team, all in all it was a great day, just a bit of a shame there was no mud!!

Druridge Bay 10k – My First Run in Harriers Colours!

It was suggested that I enter some single sport events as part of my training to build some race experience. A bit of research and I hit the jackpot with the Druridge Bay 10k! Sandwiched perfectly between my first and second triathlon, which is also being held at Druridge, so I’d even get to include some of the tri run course in the event, PERFECT!

I headed down to the country park nice and early as my brother had decided he’d join me but needed to enter on the day, there were plenty of other runners already warming up when we arrived, 2 hours before the race start seemed a bit eager to me!

Début in the Club Colours, Ambulance at the ready!

I’ve finally got round to getting my harriers vest and today was the first chance I’d had to race in it, pulling on the club colours for first time in the car park I actually made me feel like a proper runner, my brother did point out that I’d posed in front of the ambulance and that he hoped we didn’t need it later in the day!

As we made our way to the start line I met a few other harriers from my group, we were all aiming for between 55 and 60 minutes so lined up together about halfway along the field, it was great to be waiting to start with runners I knew and once again I was thankful I’d joined such a great club, thankfully before I had a chance to get nervous they were counting down to the start and we were off!!!
The course for this run is stunning, starting in the country park, heading out around a nature reserve and then a mile along the beach before finishing with a lap of the country parks lake, it definitely helped that we’d been blessed with a beautiful day so I really enjoyed taking everything in as a plodded along, my aim for the day was steady 9:15 to 9:30 minute miles taking me round in just under an hour, I stuck to the plan perfectly, my pace only really dropped along the beach, running on sand is something I’ve never done before, but looking at the stats I averaged 9:22m/m with a range of between 9:05 and 9:45 so I’m pretty happy with my efforts pacing wise.

The race supports a charity each year and this time round it was in support of the Steven Carey Fund, this is a great local charity and I know several people who are involved with it, it was set up in memory of a young lad from my village who tragically died whilst playing football for a local team, the aim of the charity is to provide defibrillators to local villages and the hope of the race was to raise enough money to locate one at the country park, considering my tri club does it’s open water training there and it hosts at least one triathlon a season this seemed like a really great charity for the run to be supporting!

Once the run was over I headed back to the course to cheer my brother home, he’d never run as far as 10K before and although he didn’t set any records for pace he was really pleased to get round without any walk breaks and looks to have caught the running bug now!

As the race is for charity the goody bag didn’t have a t-shirt but what it did have was great mug, to me this is fantastic as I love a brew and have a cupboard full of t-shirts so the last thing I really need is another one.

All in all this we had a great morning at a well-run event, the marshals’ deserve special praise, most runs I’ve done it’s local club runners who make up the majority of marshals’ but for this it was pretty much all folk who are involved with the Steven Carey Fund, they were super supportive cheering everyone on all around the course.

Finish Time: 58:39

First Night at a Running Club – 22/01/14

Finally bit the bullet and signed up to the beginners group of the local running club, I was told they train for about an hour once a week at around 10 minute miles so that appealed to me as it’s the pace I run my LSR’s, turns out this isn’t quite the case though!!

I was expecting a small group of 7-8 as this seemed to be the sizes of the groups I’d previously seen out running with the club but I was surprised to find it was closer to 20 people, apparently the beginners group doubles as a “back from injury” group which meant there was quite a few faster folk in the pack.

After the introductions it turned out that I’d managed to join on a night where intervals were planned so that was the easy 10 minute miles out the window for this week at least. The good news was that the intervals would only be 1 minute with 1 minute of rest which made a nice change from the half mile intervals I would usually do, in the end we covered about 6k in the 40 minutes so it was a nice introduction to club sessions.

As a side if anyone is reading this and thinking about joining a club DO IT, I’ve been a member for a few months now and the improvement in my running is spectacular, 5 minutes off my 5k time and 9 off my 10K I’m not saying everyone will see such gains in a short space of time and even if I’d seen no real gain for the annual cost (£15) it’s got to be the best value training tool you can get! Aside from that I’ve made new friends and travelled to races I’d never even heard of before joining!

If anyone local to me is reading this please have a look at joining Alnwick Harriers they are a great club and very supportive of triathletes.